Friday, December 31, 2010
Gotta start somewhere
Today is my first day of planting. Most of these are plants picked up from Lowes and Home Depot. In bed one there is a row of 8 red onions and a row of white. The second bed has pea seeds and three brussel sprout plants. Bed three has two Roma tomato plants. In bed four there is a lone zucchini plant. Like I have stated before I work odd schedules at work and will be filling out the beds in the next few weeks.
Building my garden spaces
My plan is to have four small gardens for easy crop rotation and access. Each box I have made is 4' x 4' by 4" high. For irrigation I am using a drip system hooked up to a hose. The irrigation system is piped underground but the hookup to the water supply is through a hose. My reason for this is because of my cities code enforcement. First we have what is called dual water supply. One is drinking water and the other is treated waste water for irrigation. Without permits I cannot hook it up permanently so a garden hose gets around that requirement. I did cheat a little bit and bury the interconnecting pvc pipe.
The second thing was to add some top soil and Black Kow. Our land around here in Cape Coral is mostly sand. I added 2 bags of top soil and 2 50lb bags of Black Kow on top of that. This makes the beds about 3-4" above the current ground.
These are the finished beds with all the top soil and manure. The irrigation drip system foundation is installed. You can see on the first bed it is different than on the other three. I used the 1/2" hose with two 90 degree bends to make a loop. After completing that bed I realized I could just put one piece of uncut hose and the natural curl of the hose would make the pattern I wanted.
In bed one is going root crops. Onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes. Bed two is legumes and brassicas. Peas, brussel sprouts, beans and broccoli. Bed three will have Tomatoes, eggplant, okra and peppers. The final bed number four will have cucumbers and squash planted. Each year the beds will be rotated. Bed 1 will switch with #4 and then all the others will be moved down one bed. This helps prevent disease in successive crops.
On a side note my posts may seem erratic due to my work schedule. But check back often for further updates.
The second thing was to add some top soil and Black Kow. Our land around here in Cape Coral is mostly sand. I added 2 bags of top soil and 2 50lb bags of Black Kow on top of that. This makes the beds about 3-4" above the current ground.
These are the finished beds with all the top soil and manure. The irrigation drip system foundation is installed. You can see on the first bed it is different than on the other three. I used the 1/2" hose with two 90 degree bends to make a loop. After completing that bed I realized I could just put one piece of uncut hose and the natural curl of the hose would make the pattern I wanted.
In bed one is going root crops. Onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes. Bed two is legumes and brassicas. Peas, brussel sprouts, beans and broccoli. Bed three will have Tomatoes, eggplant, okra and peppers. The final bed number four will have cucumbers and squash planted. Each year the beds will be rotated. Bed 1 will switch with #4 and then all the others will be moved down one bed. This helps prevent disease in successive crops.
On a side note my posts may seem erratic due to my work schedule. But check back often for further updates.
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